Private military contractor Erik Prince (Blackwater) started a private WhatsApp group for his close associates that includes a variety of right-wing government officials, intelligence operatives, arms traffickers, and journalists. Montana Representative Ryan Zinke recently joined in a group chat. Zinke’s statements to the group are quoted below in context:
The No. 1 target on Off Leash’s hit list, by orders of magnitude, was Iran. “Follow the source of evil,” wrote Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke, who served as interior secretary under Trump. “Hamas. Hezbollah. Houthis. Iran is the center of gravity.”
“Zinke is right,” agreed Tennessee Congressman Mark Green of the House Freedom Caucus.
. . .
In May, their fury turned to Biden’s brief pause in arms shipments to Israel, though none were surprised by the president’s treachery, as his “Regime is infiltrated by Muslim Brotherhood” (Yudelson) and “compromised … by Iranian regime influencers” (Zinke).
. . .
Despite such trepidations, Congressman Zinke spoke for the group when he wrote, “There is only one path forward. Elect Trump.”
“It’s Trump or Revolution!” Yudelson chimed in from the chorus.
“You mean Trump AND Revolution,” a right-leaning Canadian businessman shot back. “The Left is too violent to sit back and let Trump win again.”
. . .
Yet none of the four current and former members of Congress who are active in the group distinguished themselves as model public servants. In 2018, Zinke resigned as Trump’s secretary of the interior after an Inspector General’s report concluded he was a serial violator of ethics laws.
Zinke’s participation in the group chat was described in one of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American, a newsletter about the history behind today’s politics.
The proverb is true: A man is known by the company he keeps.